In the fourth quarter of FY23, Grasim did not meet the expectations of the Street in terms of profits and EBITDA. However, sales were in line with forecasts. On its own, Q4FY23 PAT was 93.51 crore, which was down by a huge 91.24% from 1,068.03 crore in Q4 of the previous fiscal year. On the other hand, income grew by 4.2% from Q4FY22 to Q1FY23, going from 6,376.39 crore to 6,645.83 crore.
Grasim said that the solo Q4 PAT was hurt because sales in the chemicals business were lower than they were in the same quarter last year, and the VSF business was still weak around the world.
In Q4FY23, the company’s total income of 33,462 crore was the highest it had ever been. This was a 16% increase from the previous year, which was mostly due to the strong performance of key companies. For the quarter, EBITDA grew by 5% year over year to 4,873 crore. When tax write-backs and other one-time things are taken into account, the consolidated comparable PAT from continuing operations was 1,369 crore during the quarter, compared to 1,419 crore in Q4 of last year.
On a segment-by-segment basis, the company’s VSF sales jumped by 25% from Q3 to Q4 FY23, to 192KT. The income from the viscose business went up by 18% from the previous quarter to 3,764 crore.
In Q4FY23, the chemicals business brought in 2,397 crore. down 7% QoQ, and EBITDA was 368 crore, which was down 25% QoQ. The ECU was down 10% sequentially to 42,136 per MT.
In the paint business, all six of Grasim’s plants are being built as planned, and its state-of-the-art R&D centre is up and running. All of the Business Plan actions are going as planned, and the business launch will happen in stages starting in Q4FY24 as planned.
Also, cement sales reached 105.7 MTPA, which was up 12% from the previous year. This was the first time any cement company in India had reached 100 MTPA. For the quarter, capacity was used 95% of the time, compared to 90% in Q4FY22. For FY23, consolidated sales was 63,240 crore, up 20% from FY22, and EBITDA was 11,123 crore.
Grasim said that UltraTech’s plan to grow is going according to plan. During the year, the Company turned on an extra 12.4 MTPA of grey cement production. Since March 23, it has also started making cement at a vacant site with a capacity of 3 MTPA. This brings the total capacity in India to 130 MTPA. Ultratech Cement is owned by Grasim and Aditya Birla Group.
“The Go-to-Market strategy and outreach plan have been finalised,” Grasim said about the B2B e-commerce business. For the full-scale start, which is planned for Q2FY24, we have already brought on a top team from sales, marketing, categories, and operations. This will be rolled out in stages, starting with Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. At a meeting on Friday, Grasim announced a dividend of 10 ($0.20) per stock share for the year that finished on March 31, 2023. At the time of writing, one share of Grasim was worth 1702. This was the same price as the previous session on BSE.
